Canetti's Corner - February 6, 2012

For this blog, I want to focus on the photograph above. Welcome to the worst seat in the house at BBVA Compass Stadium. Incredible, isn’t it?

I’m going to take you on a quick tour …

This perspective is from Section 222, on the northeast side. From here, you can get a terrific look at many of the great features of the stadium. Let me highlight a few:

First and foremost, you get a great sense of the location. Looking east to west, you can see the Houston skyline just a few blocks away. Being downtown is the most critical element of the new stadium, and from this photo, you can see we are right there.

Secondly, you can see that there is not a bad seat in the house. This view is from the last row. The sightlines are incredible and fans will be right on top of the action, no matter the seat.

When you look down into the 100 level, you can see how close the seats are to the field. There are only eight rows of seating from the pitch to the last row in the lower bowl. There are still some good season tickets left in the 100 level but they will sell out soon.

As you can see, the roofs provide good shelter for almost all of the seats on the east and west sidelines, and some in the south end zone.

The glass windows, in the mid-section, running atop the sideline sections, are the suites. They sit nine and 10 rows from the pitch. What you can’t see is how beautiful they are on the inside. Only four out of 31 are left for sale.

The large carved out area in the middle of the 200 level, is the stadium club. If you look closely, or zoom in, you can see that there is an indoor and an outdoor space to the club, separated by glass. The indoor area will feature a bar and eating area, while the outside deck will offer a great place to gather and watch the match.

On the north side (to the right), you can see a flat deck with an orange wall behind it. This is the Budweiser Party Deck. It is located directly behind the goal, and is a private area for groups of around 100 people. A similar deck will exist on the opposite end, behind the south goal, but it is not yet built into place.

Above the Budweiser Party Deck, on the north side, you can see the main video board. Across the way, on the south end of the stadium, you can see a large roof structure. That is where the stage will be for concerts.

Like I said; incredible, isn’t it?

This past weekend was the one-year anniversary on the ceremonial ground breaking. When you look at that photo, it is hard to believe all that has been accomplished in fewer than 12 months. It’s even harder to believe that we are so close - just 96 days from the grand opening.

A few other bits of news and notes:

We announced our broadcast partnership with Fox Sports Houston last week. This means that all 34 MLS games will be televised. 12 games will be on national TV, and 22 will be on local TV, with six on KPRC Local 2 and 16 on Fox Sports Houston. This is the best TV package we have ever had, and addresses many of the distribution challenges we’ve faced in previous years.

Starting today, an exclusive opening day on-sale opportunity is available to season ticket holders. STH’s now have the ability to purchase additional tickets for the inaugural match at BBVA Compass. The exclusive window closes on Feb. 17. Call our office if you are a season ticket holder and need additional seats to the May 12 match against D.C. United. It is possible that current season ticket holders could purchase enough seats to sell out game one.

The team heads to California this week for a series of scrimmages against MLS clubs. Stay tuned to HoustonDynamo.com for updates throughout the week.

That’s it for now. I’ll be in touch soon with further updates as things continue to heat up. You can also follow my updates on Twitter @chriscanetti.